Archive for October 2008

Hi There. I am attempting to write this post live while the debate is actually happening and trying my best to write my impressions and responses to questions and answers as they are actually happening….so lets get to it….

The live presidential debate was a town hall style event, moderated my NBC’s Tom Brokaw, and in which I have to say seemed to have John McCain very at ease.

The economy of course was a central issue as Wall Street took another unheard of plunge today, and had MSNBC’s Jim Kramer suggest that at this time it might be prudent to take your money out of the market.

Tax cuts were talked about and deregulation was bandied about in reference to why this crisis has happened.

Both candidates felt that the economy would turn around, but the two candidates have different approaches and both seem to agree that it will be a slow process to turn the economy around.

Obama is able to put much of the budget deficits squarely on the Bush administration and is able to tie senator McCain to all of the votes for the Bush budgets.

Senator McCain’s response is aimed toward bipartisanship across the isle, in reference to getting us out of the budget crisis, but does not refute Obama’s claims about McCain’s votes for the Bush budgets in the past few years.

He also focused his attention toward alternative energy sources to lower our demand on foreign energy, so that our economy could be strengthened.

I have tended to hear from senator McCain a lot of wishful thinking as far as what America can accomplish in a very short time span ( and frankly, a four year term is a relatively short time span ) to try to get our children out of Iraq ( not that was mentioned here ), along with cutting the deficit, and shoring up the economy, while senator Obama was a bit more realistic as far as what programs would have to be cut in order to cut the deficit, rather than cuts across the board that would effect more than just a few programs.

I think senator McCain scores some points as far as his stance toward taxes and has just scored very big here, including stating his plans toward giving tax incentives to small business, but senator Obama was not able to respond to the statement due to time considerations.

Obama’s tax statement is simple, if you make $200,000 per year or less, you will not see a tax increase.

Climate change and the idea of green jobs were brought up and senator McCain’s answer had to do with nuclear power, while senator Obama’s response seemed to focus on generating new jobs, but did not just mention using nuclear power to order to do this. He also mentioned the oil consumption issue here in the US.

One question was asked should health care be treated as a commodity? Both senators Obama and McCain spoke of their different approaches to this issue.

Okay, I did the best I could with trying to follow this but I missed a lot of important points here so, I will end this with the question of America’s Foreign Policy and I have to say here that I feel that both candidates are very sincere with their separate answers to this question and of course their very different approaches and feelings toward American Foreign Policy.

While I feel that senator McCain is a bit naive about what he might be able to accomplish in his presidency, while I feel that senator Obama, while being accused of having no real experience in anything that would be close to foreign policy experience, just seems to have a better grasp of what needs to be done as far as the Iraq/ Afghanistan affair, and how that pertains to our present compliment of American Soldiers, and how that compliment could handle present and future problems abroad.

There was a bit more to this debate happening as I write this, but I think I got the best of the debate before it started to wind down, and I have to say that I honestly felt that both candidates have made valid points on several issues, and I will take what I also read from others tomorrow and do a follow up to this so stay tuned for some more on this debate.

The actual debate has just ended at about 10:35pm

And remember that there is one more debate on October 15th at Hofsta University, and please if you are still an undecided voter, than you need to see the last debate on the 15th.

As already noted, Barack Obama and 60’s activist William ( Bill ) Ayers would meet better than twenty years later, about school reform in a Chicago skyscraper.

Is this ” Guilt by Association? ”

You bet it is, and aren’t the conservative talk show hosts and the candidate running for vice president just chomping at the bit to exploit this bit of noir information?

Yes, lets just take this bit of social interaction and snowball it into a mountain of conjecture that can be spoon fed to us by a right wing media that is starting to see the McCain/Palin campaign starting to do the proverbial nosedive?

One fact…by the time that Obama had met Ayers, Ayers was a teacher, an Education Professor…probably one of those professors that conservatives are always saying use our children as left wing repositories, one of those professors who spew their left wing agendas to a captive audience.

I guess the real question here is can’t a person change? Can’t a person grow and leave their past behind them? Can’t they have a fresh start? You would think that the answer here is yes right?

Not in a political race for the highest office in the land…the presidency…no trespasses forgiven….no past deeds overlooked ( and make no mistake this is equal for both sides of the isle ), and even if the answer is no, does a person become guilty of association because of chance meetings?

Apparently, the answer here, in this case, under these circumstances is a resounding yes!

And just to end this little rant on a high note, the aforementioned Bill Ayers and his wife are both professors, Bill who teaches at the University of Illinois, and his wife Bernardine Dohrn, teaches at Northwestern University.

Tonight we get to see round two of what will surely be prime-prime time viewing in this presidential race.

I will be watching the debate and either have a report later tonight or tomorrow night depending on my schedule and how I’m feeling.

But let me just state right now…if you are undecided at this point in time as to who you are voting for, this second debate will more than likely help you make up your mind.

I predict that tonight will bring a lot of muck raking, act calling, and a lot of accusation from both podiums…but only one of the candidates will win out tonight if they focus in on the most important issue that America is facing right now…and that is a lagging ( almost fatal ) economy.

While the subject of Iraq will surely be touched upon, this is not a major election issue at this particular point in time and if both candidates waste time on this issue, than the candidacy will all of a sudden become a toss up between two out of touch candidates rather than just one.

Watch the debate tonight, I guarantee it will be interesting and possibly even a bit explosive. 🙂

I ask this question more in the rhetorical vein due to what I have heard almost all of this year…

I have heard a term used by most conservative talk show hosts on the radio for most of this year when speaking of the Democrats and that term is Political Expediency…

And what I find about this term, is that it has been used against the Dems whenever it has been convenient for conservative talk radio to point out something that they consider to be wrong toward any Democratic action.

And this term was used very often by Shawn Hannity, during the Clinton years..so my question becomes…Does the Republican Party have any kind of Political Agenda?

And the answer of course is …Yes they do!

I shouldn’t even have to ask the question!

Of course they do!

Just look at the current administration now…President Bush…Republican…took us into Iraq under the premise of WMD’s…did we ever find these WMD’s?

No!

But what is the Republican mantra towards the Iraqi War at this time?…Stay the course…we can still win and bring democracy to this dustbowl of a country…whether they want one or not…and that is a mixed bag also!

And lets not even mention the 700 billion baleout, because this is something that while needed, shouldn’t have happened in the first place and I think equal blame should be placed with both parties on this one.

So, in closing this first post that I have done in a loooooooong time….both parties have political agendas, and it’s up to us as american citizens to decide what we feel is right for us and our country…and as always we should look at both sides of any issue in order to make an educated decision or even just a half assed comment…and we should especially know the issues on both sides of the isle in this election year, not just the rantings of one side or the other.